After 34 years at the state Division of Family and Children’s Services, Trabue had qualified for a pension.

But she didn’t want to retire.

“I’d rather be fast-paced than slow-paced,” the 64-year-old Savannah native and Jenkins High School grad said. “I don’t like to sit still.”

Her job at the Chatham County elections office, where she is now the assistant supervisor, meets her standards.

“I’m never bored,” she said. “I learn something every day.”

Married with two grown sons and a baby granddaughter, Trabue started out as a temporary worker in 1998. Temporary became permanent in 2004; in 2005 she became the assistant supervisor.

The work wasn’t entirely new for her; she’d worked at the polls and been a poll manager.

“One of my friends asked if I’d like to work at the office as a temp,” she recalled. “And I said, ‘sure,’ so here I am.”

She helps the supervisor, Russell Bridges, oversee a staff of four, plus half a dozen or so temporary employees. On election night, that contingent will swell into a small army of about 540 people who will run the county’s 89 polling places.

She said she’s found the permanent and temporary staff, as well as poll workers, easy to deal with.

The biggest problem she can remember is a poll worker who wanted to continue working with his mother at the same poll.

“We needed him to work somewhere else,” she said. “We had a talk and convinced him that was in everyone’s best interest. It worked out fine.”

Another difficulty stems from the need to change polling places because they’re too small. But new sites must comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act and win U.S. Department of Justice approval.

“We have to prepare a report for DOJ on each change,” she said. “It can take quite a while.”

Trabue has done most of the jobs at the office. They have ranged from clerical work and answering phones training election workers and overseeing compliance with campaign reporting laws. The state took over compliance monitoring this year.

“I refer people to Atlanta,” she said. “But I try to help them out by steering them to information on the state’s website.”

Things can get hectic as Election Day approaches.

“You’re running at full speed,” she said. “You want every machine to be at the right place. You want all the polls to open on time and everyone to know what to do.

“We’re a team and we all work as one for it all to come together.”

Bridges has high praise for her.

“She does an excellent job,” he said. “She works very well with all the people she comes in contact with.”

Trabue has seen major changes in the state’s election systems.

One big one was the 2003 switch from paper ballots to touch-screen machines.

Trabue said she was comfortable with that because she’d worked with computers at Family and Children’s Services.

“But we had some workers who didn’t like working with electronics,” she said. “They weren’t very trusting of the new equipment. It was a little time consuming getting everyone up to speed. We just took it one step at a time.”

One recent change was implementing a much-disputed requirement that voters show photo IDs at the polls.

“We really haven’t had much of a problem” she said. “Some people say things like, ‘Everybody knows who I am,’ or say they left it at home.”

Those who left them at home receive provisional ballots, which are counted after they return with the required ID.

Trabue said she likes dealing with the public. It’s satisfying, she said, to help would-be candidates with information such as maps and forms. That has become easier because people can find much of what they need on the office website.

“We’ve been adding to it a little at a time,” she said. “It’s easier and quicker for people.”

In any case, the public apparently likes dealing with her.

“It’s always a pleasure,” said former Chatham County Democratic Chairman Janice Shay. “She has this small-town way of talking to you like a real person and not just a number.”

Frank Murray, formerly the local Republican chairman, said much the same.

He and Shay said Trabue reliably gave them gentle-but-timely reminders when required paperwork was due.

“She’s always gone out of her way to be helpful,” he said. “They’re very lucky to have her.”